It is often desirable to limit access into areas considered to be high security. For example, one may wish to allow only certain authorized individuals to have access into rooms where confidential documents or expensive articles of equipment are kept. Insofar as areas of this type are usually accessed by keys, it is desirable that those keys be retained in a secure environment. Therefore, in order to accomplish the objective of limiting access to secure areas, a key retainer or holder is desirable.
A number of key enclosures, or the like, which secure keys retained therein are known. U.S. Pat. No. 2,420,125 discloses an enclosure having a box-like construction where access to the key is obtained by breaking the front transparent member of the enclosure. The transparent front member is then replaced for reuse.
Similarly, various non-transparent key enclosures employ locking devices which provide access into the enclosure. For example, in U.S. Pat. Nos. 2,813,620 and 2,672,043 there is disclosed the use of a master key and combination lock, respectively, to gain access into the key containers.
U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,493,433 and 4,445,622 disclose similar apparently non-transparent containers which permanently enclose a key. Access to the key is obtained by destroying the enclosure.
One problem associated with the use of some of these containers is that gaining access to keys contained therein requires either complete or substantial destruction of the container itself. Others require the use of a lock on the container which is incapable of signalling to an observer any use of the key retained therein, whether such use is authorized or nonauthorized. Furthermore, these key containers, due to their boxlike construction comprise a number of components and therefore are expensive to manufacture.
Two other patents, U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,037,716 and 3,127,918 disclose transparent panel type enclosures, wherein a key is contained in a recess in one panel and another panel is overlaid to enclose the key in the container. These are reusable devices. However, their lack of a security feature for preventing any unauthorized uses of a key retained therein frustrate the primary purpose of the present invention; namely security.
Therefore an object of the present invention is to provide a secure environment for retention of a key.
A further object is to provide a secure key holder capable of being quickly inspected for any unauthorized use.
A further object is to provide a secure key holder that is reusable and inexpensive to manufacture.